AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Sat May 28, 2005 3:01 AM ET
Islamic militants suspected as bombs kill 19 in Indonesia's
Sulawesi
JAKARTA (AFP) - Two bombs exploded in a busy market killing 19 people and
injuring 40 on the island of Sulawesi in the worst attack in Indonesia since the Bali
bombings.
[AFP Files Photo: Indonesian forces in Palu, Central Sulawesi during a government
security crackdown to end deadly violence... ]
Police said it may be the work of the same Islamic militants.
The blasts detonated within minutes of each other in the centre of the
Christian-dominated town of Tentena in the island's Central Sulawesi province, which
has been a flashpoint of sectarian violence in recent years.
Police in Jakarta said the attack bore hallmarks of Islamic militants behind a string of
other atrocities in Indonesia, including the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 202
mainly Western tourists died.
National police spokesman Anang Budiharjo said no foreigners were killed in
Saturday's attack but the nature of the incident suggested the involvement of Azahari
Husin, a fugitive bombmaker allied to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group.
Authorities say JI has some links with Al-Qaeda.
"I'm not saying at the moment that this is the work of Azahari's group. However, since
he has been at large for so long it is possible that he has recruited new members in
that area," he said.
"We do not rule out that possiblity because the patterns, the use of bombs, are the
trademarks of that group."
National police chief Da'i Bachtiar earlier this week said Azahari was suspected to be
behind a series of bomb threats to oil firms on the island of Borneo, to the west of
Sulawesi.
Police fears over a potential bombing similar to one last year which killed 11 people at
Australia's embassy on Thursday prompted the United States to shutter its diplomatic
missions across the world's largest Muslim country.
Bachtiar, who was already visiting the neighbouring proivince of South Sulawesi, left
for Tentena, 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) northeast of Jakarta to join police teams
already investigating the blast.
A medic at Tentena's GSKT hospital told AFP they were struggling to deal with the
casualties due to limited supplies and a shortage of trained staff.
"We need blood bags and medicine because many of the wounded are losing blood
and need immediate attention," he said.
The bombing is the most serious single incident in sporadic outbreaks of violence in
Sulawesi in recent years, many of which have targeted Christians.
A report last year by the International Crisis Group blamed many of the Christian
deaths in the main Central Sulawesi city of Poso on Mujahidin KOMPAK, an outfit
with loose affiliations to Jemaah Islamiyah.
Earlier this month, police in Poso said they arrested three Muslim extremists for their
alleged involvement in a recent bombing at a non-government organisation's office.
There were no casualties.
The three told police that their mission was to waged a "jihad" or holy war in the
province to highlight the plight of Muslims worldwide.
Among attacks last year, a Hindu woman was killed and two Christian men were
wounded when a group of attackers fired randomly into houses in the Poso region.
On the same day in a rural district south of the provincial capital Palu, to the west of
Poso, two Christians died in a machete attack.
Last May, a Christian prosecutor who handled terrorism cases was assassinated in
Palu, while in July, gunmen sprayed bullets into a Palu church, killing a woman priest
and injuring four other people.
In the worst bloodshed of 2003, armed gangs in October killed 10 people in attacks on
mainly Christian villages.
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